iPad

iOS

Jailbreak

Cydia

In a curious support document released last week, Apple is warning users against jailbreaking their devices, claiming that such "unauthorized modifications" to the iPhone OS cause "instability" and "disruption of services." Consisting of little more than a rehash of numerous arguments the company has made before, the support document seems to mainly be focused on intimidating users who are considering jailbreaking by threatening to void their warranties, or turn their phones into bricks.

The main dangers that Apple seeks to raise alarm about in this document are instability, security holes, shortened battery life and the risk that your device will be disabled if you try to update jailbroken firmware. The warnings are general in nature, and don't address the fact that the stock OS is often crashy, that App Store titles can be malware vectors, or that Google Maps is far and away the biggest battery hog on my phone. The warning about bricking your iPhone seems to be total fearmongering, or conflating jailbreaking with unlocking. Apple has toyed around before with the threat, and while they might be able to get away with blaming the user, any attempt to intentionally target unlocked phones for bricking might not pass the Magnusson Moss Act prohibition against voiding a warranty for a product with third-party enhancements or modifications. However, WIRED points out that it would be very hard, if not impossible, to prove that Apple had in fact narrowly targeted baseband unlocks.

In general, the article seems like it's aimed at playing on inexperienced users' fears. Any time you are tinkering with any computing device, you run the risk of screwing it up somehow, especially if you don't know what you're doing. If you need an Apple support document to tell you that... well yeah, maybe jailbreaking's not for you. It seems more like Apple's interested in protecting App Store profits, though, rather than uncautious users.

image via mixpod

editor update: we posted about this same doc about a year ago . . . so this is pretty old news. Still nice to keep in mind though!